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Trackdays and wheel spacers
Posted: Fri Oct 08, 2004 9:58 am
by DuncS3
Is anyone doing regualr trackdays with spacers fitted?
Juist got me thinking as Thorney said to me he wont do trackdays in a car with spacers on - now the reason for this makes perfect sense but has anyone got any thoughts on this?
I have to use wheel spacers on my car because of the brakes but could get 17" wheels which would negate the need for spacers...(for track days only)
Dunc
Posted: Sat Oct 09, 2004 2:18 pm
by Paul-RS
surely if they are good enough for looning round the road, they are good enough for the track?
asumming they are all torqued up correctly.
Posted: Sat Oct 09, 2004 7:41 pm
by DavidT
Thorney said to me he wont do trackdays in a car with spacers on
Why did he say that Duncan ?
Posted: Sat Oct 09, 2004 8:14 pm
by DuncS3
Dave - Well people say that running spacers places extra strain on something like the bearings or hubs - so I guess he meant amplifying this strain when on track...
Paul - I would say that looning around on the road will never stress your car like a track day would (hence okay for road and doubts on track)
Dunc
Posted: Sat Oct 09, 2004 9:15 pm
by TimJMS
Must have done fifteen trackdays with bolted - in spacers fitted to my hubs after I had my RS6 19's fitted to the RS4. And that was on top of another fifteen beforehand. No probs whatsoever. Would agree that it can accelerate bearing wear, but anyone doing regular track days and road mileage might want to change these at 40 - 50k miles anyway.
Your brakes will tell you when a bearing needs changing. There are spacers and spacers.
Posted: Sun Oct 10, 2004 11:00 am
by VST
I second that,done quite a few trackdays in the S3 including a few days at the ring,using several different wheel/tyre/spacer combinations,never a problem,mind you as was correctly pointed out,there are spacers and there are spacers,I used H&R or MTM hubcentric ones.
Posted: Mon Oct 11, 2004 7:48 am
by Nikolaos
I did many trackdays with different BBS wheels and 20mm MTM spacers... and with Corsa tyres, which make the stress a lot higher.
Never had any problems.
Posted: Mon Oct 11, 2004 10:50 am
by peterb
My take on this is that it all depends on whether the spacers are fitted in order to obtain the correct offset (not just to obtain clearance, but to get the centre of the tyre in the correct place), or simply in order to 'widen' the track (definitely a no-no in my book).
The first case should not place any undue strain on bearings - the second case definitely will.